Budget error turns to be 50 cents

Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta suffered a brief setback in Parliament when two errors in his proposal seeking access to half the expenditure in the Budget were pointed out.

Rangwe MP, Martin Ogindo and Manson Nyamweya of South Mugirango, told the minister that he needed to knock off 50 cents from the figure he had sought, in order to comply with the Constitution.

Mr Ogindo said the minister’s request was above what was provided in the Constitution and the Fiscal Management Act, because the law stipulates that “not more than one-half” of the recurrent expenditure estimates can be accessed from the Consolidated Fund, before the enactment of the Appropriations Act.

“The total net estimates for development and recurrent is Sh736, 632,345,877. Fifty per cent of that is Sh368,316,172,938.50, not Sh368,316,172,939,” said Mr Ogindo.

That difference of 0.50 cent had to be reviewed before the debate began.

Mr Nyamweya pointed at the fine print saying the money that Parliament was about to approve was for the current financial year ending June 30, 2011 and not for the next Budget (2011-2012), as it ought to be the case. “These are people who have actually done a budget, half of which we are being told to approve today.

How do you trust the budget they prepared without scrutinising it?” The Finance minister was, however, allowed to make amendments by the deputy speaker, to correct the errors and have Parliament approve half the Budget.